Even though ABC spent part of their Sunday marveling at chants of “we love you” at massive Trump rallies, CBS Face the Nation moderator Margaret Brennan thought she was confronting Republican Party Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel with accusations that President Trump’s supporters weren’t enthusiastic about him. Not only was Brennan schooled by McDaniel, CBS Evening News anchor Norah O’Donnell later warned of the “shy Trump voter” gaining courage.
In the midst of her contentious interview with the RNC Chairwoman, Brennan recalled that McDaniel had invested a lot of funding into the Republican Party ground game all across the country. But, without evidence, she tried to cast doubt on how much Trump supporters backed their president. “If your voters are so excited about President Trump, why haven't they shown up yet,” she sneered.
While McDaniel was explaining how Republicans prefer to vote on Election Day (a historical fact, not to mention data shows that Republicans were catching up to Democrats in early voting), Brennan rudely interrupted her guest and asked: “Why?”
McDaniel then schooled Brennan on how Republicans save their enthusiasm for Election Day and show up in big numbers (Click “expand”):
RONNA MCDANIEL: Because they really want to vote in person. And I will say--
BRENNAN (Interrupting McDaniel): Why?
MCDANIEL: -- it’s has been interesting, Margaret, this year as we’ve surveyed our voters. A vast majority of them want to vote in person. They want to make sure that their vote counts. They're not completely trusting of the mail ballot system, and so they’ve made that very clear.
And we saw that in these special elections. In the Chris Jacobs election in NY27 the Democrats had a very large lead in absentee ballots heading into Election Day, and then we won Election Day by 40 percent. And that’s kind of the flip-flop with expect to see on Election Day this year, with our voters coming out Election Day as they stacked gains with absentee ballots.
Continuing to push her assertion that the bottom had fallen out of Trump’s support, Brennan pounced on McDaniel’s recent comments to The Wall Street Journal regarding how some of Trump’s support amongst suburban woman had “faded away.” “Our data shows it more than faded, it’s been a large swing. Why have you lost women in that way,” Brennan chided.
“So, women are issue voters. We know this, Margaret. We're not monolithic,” McDaniel shot back in part. “We’re over 50 percent of the electorate. We’re not single-issue voters. But we're making decisions based on our lives, and every issue impacts us. But I do think one of the overwhelming issues we’re seeing that’s bringing them back in the suburbs is law and order.”
Towards the end of the program, when CBS’s election night crew gathered to discuss what could happen in the horse race, Brennan’s proclamations of the unenthusiastic Trump supporter got sunk by CBS colleague Norah O’Donnell.
As political correspondent Ed O’Keefe was telling viewers about how a new poll out of Iowa “shows that Joni Ernst is actually in the lead after weeks of polling suggested that her Democratic opponent, Theresa Greenfield pulled ahead,” O’Donnell interjected by noting it showed enthusiasm for Trump was growing
“That Iowa poll suggests, in fact, that the shy Trump voter is emerging,” she declared.
Not only did it signal general enthusiasm going up, according to O’Donnell, but he was gaining in some of the demographics Brennan had hyped him losing. “That independents are going back towards Donald Trump,” she said. “That actually some women are returning to the Republican fold who were there in 2016, and may not have been able to say it publicly in a poll or to their friends, that that has come back.”
And it wasn’t just O’Donnell, CBS This Morning co-host and Democratic donor Gayle King seemed to agree that a message was being sent by Trump’s supporters (Click “expand”):
O’DONNELL: Now look, Joe Biden can win without Iowa, there’s no doubt about that, but the question about--
GAYLE KING: But it may be sending a message, though
O’DONNELL: Right.
KING: Maybe sending a message.
O’DONNELL: Maybe about other places. And that’s why sort of that this; is that a canary in a coal mine or is it an outlier?
Brennan didn’t seem to be expecting that from her colleagues.
Margaret Brennan’s lies about there being no enthusiasm for President Trump among his supporters was made possible because of lucrative sponsorships from Ensure and Google. Their contact information is linked so you can tell them about the biased news they’re funding.
The transcript is below, click "expand" to read:
CBS’s Face the Nation
November 1, 2020
10:42:28 a.m. Eastern(…)
MARGARET BENNAN: But to get back to the idea of the ground game that you are credited, personally with really having invested a lot of money into for the Republican Party. If your voters are so excited about President Trump, why haven't they shown up yet?
RONNA MCDANIEL: Because they really want to vote in person. And I will say--
BRENNAN (Interrupting McDaniel): Why?
MCDANIEL: -- it’s has been interesting, Margaret, this year as we’ve surveyed our voters. A vast majority of them want to vote in person. They want to make sure that their vote counts. They're not completely trusting of the mail ballot system, and so they’ve made that very clear.
And we saw that in these special elections. In the Chris Jacobs election in NY27 the Democrats had a very large lead in absentee ballots heading into Election Day, and then we won Election Day by 40 percent. And that’s kind of the flip-flop with expect to see on Election Day this year, with our voters coming out Election Day as they stacked gains with absentee ballots.
BRENNAN: You had a big profile in the Wall Street Journal that came out just yesterday, and you said in it, you acknowledged: “We know some suburban women who were with Donald Trump in 2016 may have faded away.” Our data shows it more than faded, it’s been a large swing. Why have you lost women in that way?
MCDANIEL: Well, I think women are coming back. Women make a majority of the health care decisions. And as they see us on track to a vaccine, they see the therapeutics coming in, they want to see their kids in school, they agree with things like school choice that Republicans are putting forward, and also law and order.
What we're seeing in these cities, Democrat-run cities have really brought women back to President Trump because they do not want to see cities burned down, the looting, the rioting, we've seeing this in Philadelphia right now. They don't want to see police defunded.
So, women are issue voters. We know this, Margaret. We're not monolithic. We’re over 50 percent of the electorate. We’re not single-issue voters. But we're making decisions based on our lives, and every issue impacts us. But I do think one of the overwhelming issues we’re seeing that’s bringing them back in the suburbs is law and order.
(…)
11:23:00 a.m. Eastern
ED O’KEEFE: You can go to Iowa, for example, where a poll overnight shows that Joni Ernst is actually in the lead after weeks of polling suggested that her Democratic opponent, Theresa Greenfield pulled ahead. You --
NORAH O’DONNELL: That Iowa poll suggests, in fact, that the shy Trump voter is emerging.
O’KEEFE: Right.
O’DONNELL: That independents are going back towards Donald Trump. That actually some women are returning to the Republican fold who were there in 2016, and may not have been able to say it publicly in a poll or to their friends, that that has come back.
Now look, Joe Biden can win without Iowa, there’s no doubt about that, but the question about--
GAYLE KING: But it may be sending a message, though
O’DONNELL: Right.
KING: May be sending a message.
O’DONNELL: May be about other places. And that’s why sort of that this; is that a canary in a coal mine or is it an outlier?
(…)
